Three to know: No. 25 Missouri at N.C. State

Saturday

Dec 28, 2013 at 12:01 AMDec 28, 2013 at 1:23 PM

North Carolina State (9-2) welcomes 25th-ranked Missouri (10-1) to PNC Arena. The game can be seen on ESPN2 at 8 p.m. tonight.

1. Streaking Pack

N.C. State hasnít lost in more than a month. Since dropping an overtime decision to N.C. Central at home on Nov. 20, the Wolfpack has won seven straight. Six of those games have come at home and five were against schools from outside the power conferences. But with a lineup thatís settled thanks to the return of center Jordan Vandenberg and young players like guard Cat Barber ad BeeJay Anya showing steady improvement, the progress is hard to ignore.

But the streak itself is noteworthy. Last season, N.C. State won 10 consecutive games. But before that, the longest winning streak was a seven-game run in the 2007-08 season. Prior to that, the longest such string came in 2005-06, when the Wolfpack won seven straight in what turned out to be the final year of the Herb Sendek era.

2. Haith history

Tonight will be a homecoming of sorts for Missouri coach Frank Haith. Haith grew up in Alamance County at attended Elon University.

He got his first head coaching job at Miami, where he led the Hurricanes for seven seasons. He went 4-6 against the Wolfpack during that period and never won in four trips to PNC Arena.† Of those four losses, two came in overtime.

Haith is in his third season with the Tigers. But he missed the first five games of this season due to an NCAA suspension related to infractions committed during his time at Miami.

3. Ranked foes, Wolfpack woes

Tonight marks the first time this season that the Wolfpack will face a ranked team. Under coach Mark Gottfried, that situation has usually led to rough outings.

In Gottfriedís first season in Raleigh, the 2011-12 Wolfpack lost all eight of its games against ranked teams in either regular season or ACC tournament play. In the NCAA tournament, however, the Wolfpack beat Georgetown and San Diego State before losing to Kansas. All three teams were in the poll at the time.

Last season, N.C. State beat then top-ranked Duke, but lost its remaining five meetings with ranked teams.†

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